Art with a message

3062012

Britain and its ex-empire have quite a colourful history. Not all of it comfortable by modern standards. Having said that, it does allow for quite open negative comment, and some of it comes in the form of incisive art.

I recently came across a site called Pictures on Walls which sells some pretty thought-provoking items. One such item (unfortunately currently unavailable) is a “proper” blueprint (cyanotype) of a modern airliner, with the floorplan of the Brookes – a slave ship from the 18th century, superimposed on it. 3D DEL NAJA is the artist. A modern jet seats around the same number of people as the Brookes carried (454). Difference being of course that even the longest plane trip is only 14 or so hours, and you’re fed regularly, given a blanket and a TV to watch. The Brookes took anywhere from one to six MONTHS to make its journey, and the “cargo” were lucky to survive. Perhaps.